I come from a time in journalism when this would not have seem strange because I was taught that a reporter was supposed to pass on the truth and not undermine it with the dishonest spiels of the powerful. In recent decades, however, as the media has become more powerful itself, the opinions - including lies - of the nation's political leaders have increasingly been given similar time (and treated as equally valid) as actual facts.
Thus we find the British journal, the Guardian, writing:
After disappearing for more than a week, Donald Trump’s top health officials tasked with combatting the US’s worsening coronavirus outbreak appeared with the president during a White House press conference on Friday.
Drs Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, two of the nation’s top infectious disease experts, stood behind Trump as he and members of the White House coronavirus taskforce, including the defense secretary, Mark Esper, and health and human services secretary, Alex Azar, provided updates on vaccine development. ... They did not speak.Unlike a few Briitsh papers like the Guardian and the Independent, however, much of the major American media finds little strange or newsworthy about this.
Trump is the most dishonest, misleading and narcissistic president we have ever had. And while the media can't remove him, it can at least treat his lies as such and not as equal to the real facts of experts and other responsible people.
